Top 10 Movie Dads

Picking the top 10 movie dads was both easier and harder than picking the top 10 movie moms. Easier, because there were more candidates to choose from — and harder for the same reason! (Candidates for worst movie dads are also more plentiful than worst movie moms. For better and for worse, Hollywood is still a man’s world.)

As with the moms list, I set out to find affirmative depictions of:

admirable fathers (real fathers, not just father figures)

in onscreen father-child relationships

ideally, though not necessarily, in intact families of some sort or other.

As with the moms list, I considered biological, adoptive, and foster fathers for the main list (although I wound up with 10 biological fathers); the runners-up list also includes some father-figure characters. Both lists are alphabetical by film.